NVIDIA Spot brings Google Assistant to every room in your home

There's a common gripe with the Amazon Echo, Google Home and other voice-guided helpers: You have to stand within their listening range to make use of them. Not quite the Star Trek future you were promised, is it? NVIDIA, however, might have a fix: It just introduced the Spot, a hybrid mic and speaker that brings Google Assistant to every nook and cranny in your home. You need the new Shield TV to serve as the central hub, but you're otherwise free to turn on lights, ask questions and otherwise use Assistant knowing that you'll be heard.

The catch: Spot costs $50 a unit, and NVIDIA will say only that it's due to arrive sometime in the months ahead. It won't be cheap to outfit every room. However, this still makes Shield decidedly more compelling. Spot is likely to be more affordable than getting multiple dedicated smart speakers, especially in apartments and other homes where those speakers could easily be considered overkill.